Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Philippine Center for Postharvest
Development and Mechanization
CLSU Compound, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija

NEWS STORIES

Alcala graces nat’l conference on agri mech, postharvest
by Vladimir B. Caliguiran (March 20, 2015)
'Share the knowledge,' this was the challenge of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to the 68 participants of the National Technical Conference on Agricultural Mechanization and Postharvest Technologies, March 20, 2015.


The DA Chief was the guest speaker during the closing ceremony of the conference which was held from March 17-20 at PHilMech, Science City of Muñoz, Nueva Ecija. Technical staff from 16 DA Regional Field Offices, and staff from the Department of Agrarian Reform attended the conference.



Updates and trends on farm mechanization and postharvest technologies and systems on rice, corn, and high value crops such as fruits and vegetables were presented. The state of agricultural mechanization and postharvest in the Philippines was also discussed to the participants.



PHilMech experts and technology generators presented the industry situationer, and commercialized and emerging technologies for coffee, cacao, cashew, coconut, soybean, and other fruits and vegetables.

According to PHilMech Director Rex L. Bingabing, the conference has two objectives. First is to disseminate the new and emerging technologies developed and designed by PHilMech, and second is to gather information from the participants on their technology needs and situationer in their respective regions.



Technology demonstrations of the new technologies were also shown to the participants. This included the actual operation of the mini rice combine harvester, fluidized bed dryer, brown rice huller, pneumatic corn planter, corn compact corn mill, cassava harvester, and others.



Director Bingabing also showed to Secretary Alcala the said technologies during his ocular inspection.



Together with the DA Chief were Undersecretary Emerson Palad, Assistant Secretary Edilberto de Luna, Assistant Secretary Leandro Gazmin and DA-RFO 3 Director Andrew Villacorta.